Managing Projects: A Team-Based Approach
Brown and Hyer

Glossary of Terms

Chapter 1

Agile software development: The process of creating software in a team environment where frequent testing and consultation with stakeholders allows team members to grow a functioning system more effectively.
Balanced scorecard: A comprehensive approach to company-wide performance management that can be applied in project management. The scorecard identifies four measurement dimensions: financial, internal business processes, customer, and learning and growth.
Boehm’s Spiral Model: An iterative approach to project control that repeats project phases on a small scale as the project moves toward completion.
Cumulative Effort S-Curve: A curve depicting the cumulative effort associated with different project phases. The steepness of the curve depends on the overlap among the project phases and indicates where resource needs are likely to be the most intensive.
Extreme programming: A new incarnation of agile software development that includes more structure while retaining the underlying philosophy of adaptability associated with agile development.
Hyper-competitive business environments: Characterized by shortened product life cycles, increasing global reach of most businesses, and pressures to adopt rapidly-evolving technologies. Each of these factors has the capacity to increase the number of projects an organization undertakes to achieve strategic goals. They systematically interact with each other.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): A set of metrics that helps a team understand priorities among various project goals and will guide behaviors during the life of the project.
Life cycle: The life span of a project, including planning, delivery, and long-term impact after completion (e.g. ongoing operations, maintenance, decommissioning, etc.). 
Monitoring and control systems: A set of systems chosen for each project to monitor project progress and control changes in light of actual events.
Performance dash board: A project monitoring approach that focuses on a balanced set of KPIs and displays them in a visually-accessible, single graphic that is easy to understand and interpret.
Program: An effort that includes several projects.
Project: A temporary endeavor intended to solve a problem, seize an opportunity, or respond to a mandate. Projects can create or change processes, products or services, produce information, organize events, or tackle crises. (Or, according to PMI, “A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result. The temporary nature of projects indicates a definite beginning and end.”)
Project closure and learning: A method of reflection and lessons-learned that is applied at the end of major milestones and, on a larger scale, when the project ends.
Project management maturity: A term that describes the level of maturity and sophistication of project management processes in organizations.
Project portfolio: The set of projects an organization is undertaking at any given time. Projects within the portfolio compete for resources and attention. Successful organizations continuously review their project portfolios to ensure that, as a whole, they reflect strategic priorities.
Triple Constraint: A set of potentially-competing project priorities – the most commonly recognized being time, cost, and performance. (We note that some authors cite scope or quality, rather than performance, as the third element. We believe performance is a usefully broad metric that can include scope and quality, as well as other measures.)
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS): A project planning tool that breaks down major deliverables into their components. The WBS serves as the foundation for all other project planning and control elements, including KPIs, uncertainty assessment, time estimates, schedules, budgets, and control systems. Without a comprehensive WBS, the remainder of the project plan cannot materialize.

Chapter 2

Attribution Theory: A body of work within the field of social psychology that may be best described as the study of blame casting. Researchers have demonstrated, in numerous lab and field studies, a phenomenon known as the fundamental attributional error. In the lexicon of the theory, it says that an actor will attribute his or her own poor performance to external factors (outside of his or her control) and an observer will attribute the actor’s poor performance to factors internal to the actor (e.g., motivation, attitude).
Content: The “what” of a team meeting – the agenda at hand.
Electronic Meeting Systems: A network of personal computers equipped with special meeting software. Most versions of electronic meeting software have features that permit participants to contribute synchronously by typing in ideas that are displayed instantaneously and anonymously to the entire group. These meeting systems can also be used to link team members who are meeting virtually from several locations.
Extrinsic Motivators: Factors that come from sources beyond the task or individual that motivate individuals to participate and perform (e.g. bonus pay, salary increase, promotions, threats, fear of job loss).
Group Think: A mode of thinking that emerges when members of a team emphasize concurrence-seeking over performance and logic. Groupthink can lead to a failure to realistically appraise alternative courses of action.
Hygiene Factor: Refers to fundamental attributes of the work environment and the individual’s personal situation that must be present before intrinsic kinds of motivators could begin to be effective. Factors include, for example, physical well-being, safety, trust, fairness, etc.
Instant Polling or Audience-Response System: A feature of electronic meeting systems that quickly produces anonymous polling results with graphical displays.
Interpersonal Conflict: A type of conflict that may be the result of personality differences or long-standing animosity. However, interpersonal conflict can also be a symptom of other issues with the team.
Intrinsic Motivators: Factors that have to do with the task itself that drive individuals and teams to participate and perform. Examples include opportunities for learning, an appealing challenge, or opportunities to work with people we enjoy as colleagues.
Issue: Any problem or concern that arises in a project meeting that cannot be immediately resolved because there isn’t enough time to discuss it thoroughly, the needed information is not available, or resolution will require actions outside of the meeting
Issue Log: A method to keep track of issues identified in team meetings that need to be addressed at a later point. The log should be reviewed and updated regularly.
Mind Map: A useful team-based tool for generating a wide variety of solutions and opportunities in project environments.
Parking Lot: A wait list of important issues that do not fit with the current meeting agenda but should be discussed later.
Personal Interaction: The communication patterns, group dynamics, and group climate of a team meeting.
Positional Bargaining: A common but ineffective negotiation tactic in which individuals insist on achieving their demands without compromise. This type of bargaining can produce unwise agreements and endangers existing relationships among the parties.
Principled Negotiation: Defined as “a method of negotiation explicitly designed to produce wise outcomes efficiently and amicably”. It operates on these four basic principles: Separate people from the problem; Focus on interests, not positions; Create a variety of possible solutions; Insist that the result be based on some objective standard.
Process: The methods, procedures, format and tools used to facilitate a team meeting.
Project Room: A room dedicated to a specific project where the project team can conduct meetings, display project information, and store materials.
Prospect Theory: The principle that potential losses have a bigger influence on people’s decision making than potential gains do. 
Reciprocity: The fundamental social norm that obligates individuals to repay in kind what they have received.
Self-Efficacy: A task-specific confidence that can stem from experience and that causes individuals to apply more effort and persistence to a task.
Task-Related Conflict: A type of conflict welcomed in project management because the divergent views regarding project tasks or decisions can actually lead to a more complete and thorough understanding of the issue at hand.
Team Efficacy: A team’s sense of confidence in its ability to perform the assigned project work collaboratively.
Team Iceberg: A metaphor conveying the idea that conflicts arising in teams related to personality may be the manifestation of underlying misunderstandings and conflicts about the project’s purpose, goals, roles, or processes.

Chapter 3

Advantages and disadvantages: A method used by teams to brainstorm and discuss reasons for and against a project or project option. After advantages and disadvantages are listed in an open discussion, the team subjectively assesses the merits of each list and makes a decision.
Affinity exercise: A four-step process to brainstorm problem causes or opportunity drivers where team members silently write down possible causes or drivers on sticky notes, and then organizes them into broader categories.
Business case:  A document that presents the justification for a project and recommends whether or not it should proceed to the initiation stage. The business case is usually reviewed by the senior decision makers within the organization.
Compensatory model: A decision model that is potentially flawed in that it can produce high enough scores on some factors to overwhelm the total score for a project and bias decisions toward inappropriate choices.
Constellation of interacting forces: A situation where one underlying project cause affects the others, magnifying the effects that any one has on its own.
Decision tree: A tool used for project selection that helps a team in structuring decision options in relation to outcome and probability estimates. The general format of a decision tree involves a left-to-right branching of alternating decisions and outcomes.
Factor rating method: A way for a team to compare projects (or options within a project) on multiple dimensions. Theses dimensions are weighted to reflect their relative importance. Decision makers may use factor rating after they have reviewed financial figures. Or, they may use factor rating in the absence of objective financial figures if none are available.
Fishbone diagram: Also known as Ishikawa diagram or cause-and-effect diagram. The diagram is a method to brainstorm potential causes for an identified problem or opportunity statement where the possible causes are organized into a few general categories. Further research is needed later to determine whether the identified causes are the actual reasons for the problem or opportunity.
Force-field analysis: A method to evaluate a project by identifying driving and restraining forces that can help move the project forward or that can serve as obstacles to slow or stop the project from reaching its intended outcomes. Force-field analysis can be especially useful for evaluating projects or project options when the proposed endeavor will involve social, cultural, power, or political change among stakeholders.
Influence diagram (ID): A method to identify the causes or drivers of a problem or opportunity by looking at how a constellation of causal factors interact with each other.
Inherent risk: A risk that has potential to affect a project and is generally typical for all projects of the same nature (e.g. risk of imitation by competitors).
Internal rate of return (IRR): IRR is based on the same discounted cash-flow concepts as NPV, butIRR is the unknown variable (i.e., the discount rate) for which decision makers must solve. Instead of producing a monetary value, it tells decision makers the discount rate at which NPV would be zero. If the value of IRR is above organization’s required discount rate, the project will produce a positive NPV and it will be feasible for the organization to accept it. If the value of IRR is below the organization’s required discount rate, the project should be rejected.
Mind map: A brainstorming tool that allows teams to identify possible solutions to an identified problem or possibility. The mind map method involves visual representation of a group-led brainstorming session.
Net present value (NPV): A formula to calculate the feasibility of a project based on the principle that an amount of money in hand today is worth more than the same amount available in the future. NPV is the difference between what decision makers believe they will spend on a project and the present value associated with future cash inflows or cost savings that will result exclusively from the project. NPV is built around a required rate of return (also known as a discount rate),which is a percent value reflecting a ‘hurdle’ each potential project must surpass. The net present value for a proposed project is computed as ‘Net Present Value’ = ‘(Net cash inflows * present value factor) – Net investment amount’
If NPV is greater than zero, the investment is considered worthwhile from a financial standpoint, but higher NPVs are more attractive than lower NPVs.
Opportunity: An opportunity can be a driving force justifying the acceptance of a project into an organization’s portfolio. An opportunity exists when there is a gap between current conditions and some desired future state.
Pareto Priority Index (PPI): A project evaluation method that has grown out of the Six Sigma tradition for evaluating the relative merits of several projects competing for resources. It is typically applied when the projects under consideration are aimed at cost reductions and is therefore especially useful for vetting process improvement or IT projects.
Payback period: A formula used to calculate how long it will take to recover an initial investment into a project. It is typically applied in programs where benefits are projected to accrue incrementally over time after the project is complete. The payback period is calculated as ‘estimated project cost’ divided by ‘future annual benefits associated with the project outcomes’. The payback period formula does not take into consideration the time value of money.
Pilot project: An initial, often smaller-scale project that is used to see whether a larger project of similar nature is feasible or appropriate.
Problem: The driving force behind many projects; a measurable gap between a current condition and the desired condition. The best problem statements include location, timing, and magnitude.
Portfolio of Projects: The set of projects an organization has underway at any given time. Projects within the portfolio compete for resources and attention.
Portfolio map: A way to visually display the various projects an organization has underway (or is planning) that takes into consideration their strategic value to the firm, anticipated risk, and anticipated financial outcomes. The portfolio map can be useful in deciding which projects to select, continue, or drop.
Project funnel: A visual representation of an effective project selection process where the wide mouth of the funnel represents the entry of all potential projects. Throughout the selection process, projects are screened based on a number of criteria and influences, until only the most appropriate projects move on to the initiation stage.
Project portfolio management: A method used to manage a company’s project portfolio.
Real options: A project selection method based on an idea borrowed from the financial sector, whereby a selection team could break a project into several phases, with a decision point at the end of each phase, and at each decision point consider multiple options for continuing the project.
Reciprocal cause-effect relationship: A causal pattern where one or more causes feed into each other. This creates a positive feedback loop that can create a potentially unending cause-effect loop if the system has no self-correcting mechanism.
Round robin: A facilitator asks participants to work alone or in small teams to generate ideas on a topic, then calls on individuals or small teams one at a time and asks each to name one idea that has not already been mentioned. The facilitator records each idea on a flip chart or white board. The facilitator typically makes more than one round through the group, continuing until all ideas are on the board. Closely related to the nominal group technique.
Stage-Gate model: A mid-project assessment tool that considers only go-no-go options at phase milestones previously identified by the organization, project manager, or team.
System Dynamics:  A field of study that examines interrelationships among constellations of variables, including feedback loops and delay. The term was initially coined by Professor Jay Forrester at MIT.
SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats): A method of evaluating projects based on negative and positive forces inside and outside the organization.
Useful life: The time period over which a project, product, or initiative will benefit the organization.

Chapter 4

Balanced matrix organization structure: An organizational form that falls somewhere between a strong and weak matrix. Projects teams are cross-functional in nature, but the projects are managed by a separate department called a project management office (PMO) which includes all of the project managers.
Composite organization structure: An organizational structure generally adopted by organizations of reasonable size which is represented by many project organizational forms. Some projects operate within departments, other projects may be coordinated across functions by a project manager with limited authority, and still other projects representing major new business ventures might be run as entirely autonomous entities.
Cost-reimbursement contract: A type of contract where the customer is billed for all work performed, regardless of the initial quote. The customer carries the risk of having to pay more than originally planned.
Fixed-price contract: A type of contract that guarantees the customer service at an advanced-known cost. The contractor/supplier carries the risk and burden of any higher than anticipated cost and forces him to accurately estimate cost up front. 
Functional organization structure: An organizational structure where teams are grouped by function (e.g. marketing, finance, human resources, engineering, operations) and many local projects operate within the domain of a single department. This form of structure is best suited for situations in which there is a lot of routine work.
Matrix organization: An organizational form which allows functions to exist on the vertical dimension of the organization chart, with projects running on the horizontal dimension. Team members can be assigned full or part time to projects, which generally span multiple departments; however, they still have their functional homes allowing them to maintain relationships important for career development. In a matrix organization described as strong or heavyweight, project managers enjoy a level of authority similar to that of functional managers. In weak or lightweight matrix organizations, the project managers carry more of a coordination role than a leadership role, and have limited authority.
Networked Organization Structure: An emerging view of organization structures which takes a more fluid and boundary-spanning perspective. Project teams can take on many forms within this type of structure, and could even be performed by subcontractors coordinated by a single project manager or core team. Others operate within functions but rely on informal relationships with people in other functional areas.
Project charter: This document establishes the authority of the project manager, and specifies several important project parameters. Although funding and deadlines may be modified as the detailed project plan unfolds, the baseline data provided in the project charter give the project team a general sense of the purpose and scope of its task.
Projectized organization structure: An organizational structure which is built almost entirely around individual projects. Project teams are necessarily cross-functional and focused full time on their assigned projects, and decision authority is clear. When a project is completed, the team is disbanded and team members are eventually assigned to other projects. 
Success visioning: A process used to identify key success measures (both project and business measures) for a project. The project team envisions what the successfully completed project will look like and uses this to develop a list of specific measures that would assess the project’s success for each of the identified stakeholders.

Chapter 5

Ballpark or Order of magnitude estimate: Preliminary estimate of project costs, done during the initiation stage as input to project selection decisions.
Budgetary estimate: An estimate of costs that is more precise than the order of magnitude estimate, but is not based on the detailed tasks required as laid out in the WBS.
Project Involvement Matrix: A tool for functional managers to use in keeping track of the project assignments of employees. The rows on the matrix represent employees, and the column headings represent the projects in which these individuals are involved. A simple check mark can indicate that an individual is committed to a particular project, or percentages may be entered to reflect the percent of time an individual devotes to each project.
Responsibility Matrix: A tool for keeping track of various roles. Project tasks are listed as row headings and each team member as a column heading. Cell entries record the role that a given individual plays in a particular project task.
Steep learning curve: A curve that shows a fast rate of learning as project teams do repetitive projects.
Sum-of-Parts Check: A check conducted on the final WBS to be certain that lower-level tasks sum up to their higher-level parent tasks.
Work breakdown structure (WBS): A tool that helps turn a large piece of work into a set of tasks that are doable, manageable and measurable. A deliverable-oriented hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed by the project team, to accomplish the project objectives and create the required deliverables. The WBS organizes and defines the total scope of the project.

Chapter 6

Dress rehearsal: A method of project simulation that employs a practice run before an event or activity.
Favorable project uncertainty: Things not currently within the project team’s expectations that have the potential to make the project even better or open doors for valuable opportunities currently outside the scope of the project.
Fishbone diagram: Also known as Ishikawa diagram or cause-and-effect diagram. In the context of uncertainty analysis, it is used as a structural framework for brainstorming potential causes of an identified risk. Possible causes are organized into a few general categories, and further research is needed later to determine whether the identified causes are the actual reasons for the problem or opportunity.
FMEA (Failure Modes and Effects Analysis): FMEA was originally developed as a systematic, team-based analytic process for examining what could go wrong with a product or a routine production process. FMEA has been adapted for use in planning projects as a tool to aid a team in identifying potential risks and assessing their significance using numerical scoring.
Gambler’s fallacy: A bias related to the inaccurate statistical expectations people place on random event patterns. In a project environment, unrealistic statistical expectations could lead people to believe a string of bad luck will even out, and therefore underestimate the likelihood that unfavorable conditions will continue. Such expectations could influence a team assessing project risks or making go–no-go decisions in the context of a series of failures within a project.
Gut-feel method: An interactive and visual method used for uncertainty assessment in team settings that can be adapted to include both favorable and unfavorable uncertainties. Teams brainstorm ideas about the likelihood and impact of uncertainties, vote using adhesive-backed colored dots to signify likelihood and impact, and visually identify the most significant uncertainties for further discussion and preparation.
Known unknown: A term used to describe uncertainties for which a team has anticipated and planned carefully.
Likelihood: A dimension of uncertainty that project teams must consider, along with impact, when determining which uncertainties are worthy of attention. Likelihood is a subjective estimate of probability, based on opinion and judgment. In the absence of reliable historical data, teams can use consensus-based or voting methods to enhance their ability to forecast likelihood.
Outcome: A dimension of uncertainty analysis, the outcome is the consequence of the event that a favorable or unfavorable uncertainty creates.
Physical mock-up: A method of project simulation that utilizes a three-dimensional representation of a product for assessing design concepts, examining physical compatibilities, or testing physical properties during the design phase of product development.
Risky shift: A social-psychological phenomenon in which individuals tend to increase their willingness to accept risk, beyond their innate level of risk tolerance, after engaging in group discussion about an action under consideration.
Simulation: An approach for tackling project uncertainties, and defined by The American Heritage College Dictionary as “Representation of the operation or features of one process or system through the use on another,” simulation generally engages the use of technical methods to understand the behavior of a product or process, but can use other, physical representation methods such as dress rehearsal, physical mock-up and tabletop exercises.
Six Sigma: A systematic approach for planning and managing quality management and quality improvement projects. Several tools within Six Sigma can be applied to projects of all types, regardless of whether or not they involve quality improvement.
Tabletop exercises: A method of project simulation that involves miniature props or mockups representing the physical facilities where a project event will occur. Team members use the physical representation to help them imagine the scenario and envision possible the circumstances. They brainstorm critical uncertainties for which they feel ill-prepared and develop contingency plans.
Uncertainty analysis: Tools and processes used to increase a team’s awareness of unknowns that can affect project outcomes, and to address those uncertainties by making adjustments in the project schedule, budget, resource distribution, specifications and other project dimensions. Uncertainty assessment occurs at every stage of project planning and management, but the stage immediately following WBS development offers the best place for a productive formal assessment.
Uncertainty Source: A dimension of uncertainty assessment, the source is typically considered as the root cause or driver of an uncertainty. Five categories of uncertainty sources include: Financial, Technical, Business Environment, Social, and External or Natural Environment.
Unfavorable project risks: Events or occurrences not currently within the project team’s expectations that have the potential to undermine the success of a project.
Unknown unknown: An event that still may occur as a surprise in a project, even after the team has performed a thorough uncertainty analysis and identified known unknowns.

Chapter 7

Activity-on-arrow (AOA): A type of network schedule display used to show when activities will occur during a project and also to make clear the sequential relationships between activities. In an AOA diagram, activity information (including a description of the activity and its estimated duration) appears on connecting arrows or arcs; nodes (which can be represented by boxes, circles, or other two-dimensional shapes) represent the beginning and ending points of activities. One distinguishing feature of AOA networks is that in some configurations they require what are known as dummy activities (defined later in this glossary).
Activity-on-node (AON): A type of network schedule display, similar to an activity-on-arrow diagram, used to show when activities will occur during a project and also to make clear the sequential relationships between activities. In an AON diagram, activity information (including a description of the activity and its estimated duration) appears inside nodes (which can be represented by boxes, circles, or other two-dimensional shapes) and arrows between nodes indicate the sequential relationships among activities to be performed in the project.
Backward pass: As part of the mathematical logic used in the critical path algorithm, the backward pass involves calculating the late finish and late start for each activity, starting with the ending project activity or milestone and working backward through the network toward the beginning of the project.
Beta distribution: As part of the PERT three-point time estimate method, a beta distribution can be determined from only three time estimates, and allows more flexibility than a normal distribution because it does not have to be symmetrical and thus can be skewed to the right or left.
Central Limit Theorem: A statistical theorem which states that regardless of the shape of a population’s distribution, a sufficiently large random sample from that population will have a normal distribution with a bell-shaped curve. 
Critical path: The longest duration path of activities in a network schedule, which determines the anticipated total amount of calendar time a project will consume.
Critical path algorithm: A mathematical algorithm used for assessing the location of the critical path, free float, and total float on a network schedule. It involves making a forward pass through the network to determine the earliest possible start and finish times for each activity, then taking a backward pass to determine the latest possible start and finish times for each activity.
Critical path method (CPM): A scheduling approach developed and used by Du Pont in the 1950s to bring order and substantial time compression to projects involving the closure of chemical plants during routine maintenance procedures.
Criticality index: An estimation of the probability an activity will fall on the critical path, as generated by computer simulations of activity durations. A high criticality index indicates there is a high likelihood the activity in question will fall on the critical path.   
Dummy activity: Used in AOA networks and usually indicated by a dashed line, a dummy activity helps keep the activities in a network true to specified logical dependencies. Without a dummy activity, it is possible the network would either miss an important relationship or depict a false dependency. AON networks, by nature of their structure, do not require dummy activities.
Early start schedule:  A network schedule in which every activity is set to begin at its earliest possible start time.
Early start time: The earliest possible time an individual activity may begin, given its predecessors.
Fast-tracking: A scheduling tactic whereby tasks normally done in sequence are overlapped to some extent in order to compress a project schedule.
Finish-to-finish: A sequential relationship between tasks whereby the second task in the sequence cannot finish until a specified time after the first task in the sequence has finished.
Finish-to-start: A sequential relationship between tasks whereby the second task in the sequence cannot start until the first task in the sequence has finished, either immediately after the first task has finished or after a specified lag or waiting period.
Float or Slack: A metric used in project scheduling to indicate the length of time that a task not on the critical path can be delayed without jeopardizing the schedule.
Free float: The amount of time by which an activity can be delayed from its early start time without delaying the early start of any activity that immediately follows it.
Forward pass: As part of the mathematical logic used in the critical path algorithm, the forward pass involves calculating the earliest possible start and finish time for each activity, beginning with the all starting activities and working toward the end of the project.
Gantt chart or Bar chart: A scheduling tool that displays project activities as horizontal bars on a time scale. The Gantt chart makes it easy to see when activities are scheduled, but does not depict dependency relationships concretely.
Hard logic: A mandatory sequential relationship in which an activity must absolutely be completed before a successor activity may begin.
Lag or Delay: A specified amount of waiting time designated between sequential activities in a finish-to-start relationship. The second task in the sequence can begin only after a certain amount of time has passed after the first task in the sequence has finished.
Late-start schedule: A schedule in which all project activities are delayed to their latest possible start times.
Line-of-balance method: A method developed in the 1950s for measuring the status of production in manufacturing sites, and a precursor to modern scheduling techniques and network diagrams.
Megaproject or Program: A large-scale, long duration project that involves many deliverables or milestones.
Milestone: An event in a project designating the point at which a related set of activities has been completed, or at which a set of activities may begin.
Monte Carlo simulation: A type of simulation with a wide range of applications. In a project scheduling application, Monte Carlo methods use a software program to generate random numbers for activity times based on specifications such as distribution type, mean, and range. The results of such simulations are time estimates for project tasks and paths, as well as criticality indices.
Network diagram or PERT/CPM chart: A diagram that shows sequential and concurrent relationships among activities in a project.
Noncritical activities: Activities in a network path that do not fall on the critical path and thus can be delayed somewhat without jeopardizing the project schedule.
Normal distribution: A distribution of numbers that is bell-shaped and has tails of equal size extending from either side of the modal/mean value.
Precedence relationships: Relationships between activities that determine the sequence in which the activities will be performed.
Probabilistic analysis: In project scheduling, an analysis that applies statistical concepts to determine probabilities of task durations and other parameters based on three-point time estimates.
Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) or Three-point estimates: A method for calculating probabilistic task time estimates first used by the U.S. military and based on three time estimates given for each task: an “optimistic” time estimate t(o), a “pessimistic” time estimate t(p), and a “most likely” time estimate t(m). PERT uses the following equation to calculate an expected time estimate:
t(e) = t(o) + 4 t(m) + t(p)     
                     6
Rolling wave planning: A method of scheduling or planning used in large projects with many phases or milestones, where details about work to be done in the distant future are not developed until early work has been completed and the team has the necessary information to define later work elements.
Soft logic: A sequential relationship between activities that can be arranged in a number of ways, depending on the project manager or team’s preferences, resources available, or other circumstances.
Standard deviation (s): A statistical measure of the variability or dispersion of a data set. The concept is applied in the PERT method for estimating activity and path durations and associated probabilities.
Start-to-finish: A sequential relationship between tasks whereby the second task in the sequence cannot finish until a specified time after the first task has started.
Start-to-start: A sequential relationship between tasks whereby the second task in the sequence cannot start until a specified time after the first task has started. This type of sequential relationship is often used for fast-tracking schedules.
Time-based network: A scheduling display tool that combines the advantages of networks (e.g., AOA or AON diagrams) and bar charts (e.g., Gantt charts) and provides a visual illustration of critical path and float in a project.
Total float: The amount of time by which an activity can be delayed from its early start time without delaying the project beyond its anticipated end date.
Variance (s2): A statistical measure of the amount of variation of all the scores for a variable, not just the extremes which give the range. Standard deviation is derived by calculating the square root of the variance.
Z-table: A table showing the probabilities (areas) under the standard normal probability density. In a Z-table, Z-values representing standard deviations appear in column headings and corresponding probabilities appear in the columns beneath them.

Chapter 8

Crash cost – The cost of adding resources to complete a task in a shorter time frame than its normal duration.
Crash cost per month (or other time unit) – The difference between the normal cost and the crash cost, divided by the difference between the normal time and crash time, based on a specified time unit (days, weeks, months, etc.).
Crash time – The least amount of time in which a task can be feasibly completed.
Crashing – The process of analyzing the trade-offs between the fixed costs associated with ongoing project work and the cost of applying additional resources to shorten critical path activities.
Critical chain – The actual sequence of deliverables, activities, tasks, or work packages that cannot be delayed without delaying the project. The critical chain concept is similar to the critical path concept; however, it adds another layer of complexity by taking into account resource availability.
Fast tracking – A scheduling technique that involves scheduling two or more tasks simultaneously, rather than sequentially, in order to shorten the duration of a project. Fast tracking can be used independently or in combination with crashing and scope reduction techniques to compress a project’s schedule.
Feeding buffer – A segment of float intentionally scheduled at points where noncritical chain activities merge with critical chain activities. It places a limit on the extent to which a non-critical task may consume float by being delayed.
Front-end loaded – A schedule in which resource requirements are heavy in the beginning and taper off toward the end is said to be front-end loaded.
Fully crashed time – The absolute shortest amount of time in which an activity can be accomplished.
Normal cost – The cost of completing a task at its normal time.
Normal time – The time required to complete a task under normal conditions, typically in the time specified in the initial project schedule, before any crashing has been applied.
Overallocation – A situation in which necessary resource requirements exceed the availability of team members.
Person-months – A measure of the number of persons required X the number of months of work per person.
Project buffer – The time between a project’s anticipated end date and the due date specified by the customer. According to advocates of critical chain applications, buffers allocated to individual activities are removed and accumulated at the end of the project where they can be shared.
Project scope reduction – The process of eliminating tasks or deliverables from the work breakdown structure (WBS) with the intention of shortening the duration or cost of the project.
Resource buffer – In critical chain terminology, this is an agreed-upon date on which team members whose tasks run sequentially will meet to discuss the progress of their work. This offers an opportunity for an early warning if the first task is running late, and elevates the problem so the project manager and team members can provide assistance.
Resource-constrained allocation problems – Scheduling problems that arise when the resources available within a certain time period (e.g. day, month) are limited. To solve these problems, the project manager must delay one or more activities. Very often, realistic solutions to resource constraints involve delaying a project beyond its originally scheduled completion date.
Rolling-wave planning – A planning technique, often used in multi-phase projects of long duration, whereby early activities in the project are planned and scheduled in much more detail than later activities. As the project progresses, the team has access to more information and can plan later work in more detail.
Tabular approach for project crashing – A matrix used to display a series of crashing decisions.
Theory of Constraints (TOC) – A conceptual framework and set of tools aimed at identifying and managing constraints or bottlenecks in processes. According to advocates of TOC, the constraint in a project is defined by the critical chain, which is a function of resource availability.
Time-constrained resource smoothing – A scheduling process by which a project manager redistributes resources and float within the confines of a specified end date, with the objective of smoothing lumpy resource profiles.
Underallocation – A situation in which the resources available exceed the project requirements at a specific period of time. Some workers or other resources would be idle during a period of underallocation.

Chapter 9

Actual cost (AC) – The actual, cumulative expenditures up to a specified date in the project. The ending value of AC is the total actual cost of the project.
Budget at completion (BAC) – The initial budget for the entire project based on planned expenditures.
Change control board – A group of people that includes important stakeholders such as the project manager, sponsor, customers, key suppliers, and leaders of important project subteams. When anyone proposes a change, the change control board follows an established protocol to evaluate its effect on key project performance metrics and, based on this assessment, decides whether to adopt the proposed change.
Change control process – A set of formal procedures for introducing changes to a project plan.
Checklist – A type of project monitoring tool that includes a list of activities, tasks, or work packages from the WBS and space for marking off each one as it is completed. Checklists can be appropriate for monitoring small, simple projects but are typically not sophisticated enough for tracking large, complex projects.
Closure activities – Activities undertaken by the project team to formally conclude the major components of the project and the project overall. When all closure activities are complete the team can say, “we’re done!”
Cost performance index (CPI) – A ratio indicator of cost performance in relation to earned value where a value of 1 indicates performance to plan, a value of greater than 1 indicates good cost performance (i.e. under budget) and a value of less than 1 indicates poor cost performance (i.e. over budget).
Cost variance (CV) – A measure of the difference between the value of the work performed to date and the actual costs spent to achieve that value of work.
Cost variance % (CV%) – A measure of the percentage difference between the cost variance and the value of the work completed to date.
Dashboard – An increasingly popular project monitoring tool that consolidates a balanced set of metrics and displays them in a visual, image-rich format. This permits key stakeholders to see easily how the project is progressing and to identify where problems or potential problems call for action.
Data date – In earned value methodology, the point in time at which measurements were taken during a project.
Earned value (EV) – In earned value methodology, the value of the work completed up to a specified date in the project, based on the initial value (i.e., budget amount) specified for each deliverable or work package during the budgeting phase.  EV disregards actual costs incurred and reflects only what the work was budgeted to cost at the project outset.   
Earned value reports – Reports in which planned value (PV), actual cost (AC), and earned value (EV) project metrics are combined into tables and graphical displays. PV, AV and EV can be used to determine several variance and index calculations that summarize project performance.
Escalation of commitment – The tendency for human beings to continue pursuing failing courses of action, even when all signals point to the fallacy of the strategy.  In project environments, when things are going badly, project team members often increase their commitment to the current approach rather than seek a new approach. This is one of several phenomena that affect project delivery and cause actual performance to depart from planned performance.
Estimate at completion(cost) (EACcost) – The final cost of the project if cost performance continues in the current pattern.
Estimate at completion(time) (EACtime) – The duration of the project if schedule performance continues in the current pattern.
Feature creep – The tendency in technical environments for engineers to add features beyond what may be useful or marketable. In a project setting, feature creep involves adding features beyond what was originally outlined in the scope of work for the project. This is one of several phenomena that affect project delivery and causes actual performance to depart from planned performance.
Gantt chart tracking – A project monitoring method in which the progress of activities is tracked via horizontal bar charts, with differences in color within the bars indicating the progress of the activities the bars represent.
Level of effort – A term used to describe project work that is ongoing and difficult to break into measureable subcomponents. 
Murphy’s Law – An adage stating, “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.” Murphy’s Law is one of several phenomena that affect project delivery and causes actual performance to depart from planned performance.
Pareto’s Law – This widely used principle states that, for many phenomena, 80 percent of the effects come from 20% of the causes. Applied to a project environment, Pareto’s Law would predict that 80 percent of project problems and delays would be caused by 20 percent of project activities. The principle is named for Vilfredo Pareto, a 19th century economist and sociologist. He observed that, in Italy, 80% of wealth was held by 20% of the population. Pareto’s Law is one of several phenomena that affect project delivery and causes actual performance to depart from planned performance.
Parkinson’s Law – Parkinson’s Law holds that, “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”  Applied to project environments, team member perceptions of activity float can lead them to dawdle over tasks longer than necessary. As a consequence, non-critical tasks can become critical and jeopardize the project’s target end date. This is one of several phenomena that affect project delivery and causes actual performance to depart from planned performance.
Percent-complete method – A project monitoring method whereby a project team reports the number of time units the project (or activity) has been under way and compares it, as a percentage, with the total time allotment for the project (or activity). This approach can work well as a tracking tool for short-duration, low-priority projects and for work within a project that is difficult to monitor at a granular level.
Planned value (PV) – The amount the project team plans to have spent at any given project date, given all of the activities it expects to complete by that point in time. This is a future-oriented forecast. The ending PV represents the total project budget, which is known as Budget at Completion (BAC). 
Project change management – The process a team uses for deciding when changes to a project (e.g., the addition of a new product feature) are appropriate and when the project should remain as is. Project change management is an essential element of effective project delivery.
Project control – The set of processes, decisions, and actions involved in responding to project variances.
Project monitoring – Any tracking system, from a simple checklist to sophisticated dashboard-style approaches, for identifying variances from the original project plan.
Quality creep –The tendency for technical specialists to want to make a product incrementally better, often reaching beyond what is necessary in terms of specifications or scope of a project. Quality creep is one of several phenomena that affect project delivery and cause actual performance to depart from planned performance.
Schedule performance index (SPI) – A ratio indicator of schedule performance in relation to earned value where a value of 1 indicates performance to plan, a value of greater than 1 indicates good schedule performance (i.e. ahead of schedule) and a value of less than 1 indicates poor schedule performance (i.e. behind schedule).
Schedule variance (SV) – A measure of the difference between the progress made at a certain date in the project and the progress planned to have made by that date.
Schedule variance % (SV%) – A measure of the percentage difference between the schedule variance and the value of the work intended to have been completed by a certain date.
Scope creep – The tendency for a project to grow beyond the size specified in the initial plan.  Team member enthusiasm, idle team members looking for ways to contribute during downtime, unanticipated issues discovered mid-stream, and redefinition or clarification of customer needs are some of the factors that can contribute to scope creep. Scope creep is one of several phenomena that affect project delivery and cause actual performance to depart from planned performance.
Spreadsheets with variance data – A project monitoring tool which uses a spreadsheet to track the performance of each project component.  For example, each WBS item could appear as a row heading while column entries would capture estimated duration, start date, current status (i.e., what percent complete), schedule variance, budgeted expenses, actual expense to date, and the budget variance for that item. Some project monitoring spreadsheets use color to indicate status (e.g., green for going as expected, yellow for small variances that could widen, etc.).
Statistical variation among dependent events – The concept that late activities always delay subsequent activities, and early completions rarely benefit successor activities. This occurs because team members hesitate to communicate anticipated early completions to their handoff colleagues. This is one of several phenomena that affect project delivery and cause actual performance to depart from planned performance.
The student syndrome – The tendency for project team members to delay the start of their work until the last minute. This can create situations in which schedule buffers disappear and the critical path and critical chain are jeopardized. The student syndrome is one of several phenomena that affect project delivery and cause actual performance to depart from planned performance.

Chapter 10

After-action review (AAR) – A methodology developed by the military for continuous learning during a project. A review session is held at the conclusion of each significant phase or milestone of an action (project) to identify what to do differently and better in the next phase. Some civilian organizations have adapted the process for use in non-military settings.
End-of-phase review and improvement (EPR) – A formal approach for continuous learning which incorporates elements of the after-action review (AAR) methodology. The team identifies what has gone well, what has not gone well, and lessons learned thus far in the project. EPR sessions yield action plans for applying lessons learned to future project phases.
Fundamental attribution error (FAE) – A human tendency to find fault in individuals, rather than in the organizational context of problems that have occurred. FAE could negatively affect the outcome of a project learning session if teams fail to address system-related causes and, instead, alienate people they have inappropriately blamed.
Knowledge maps – A directory of persons within the organization who have specific knowledge or expertise. These directories help facilitate cross-project learning by identifying who in the organization has knowledge that may be helpful in solving a current project problem.
Learning organization – Enterprises that view every event as an opportunity for learning. Learning organizations capitalize on opportunities to learn and improve throughout the duration of a project, not just at the end of a project.
Lessons-learned activities – Activities where project managers and their teams take time after a project has concluded to identify and document what was done well or poorly and what was learned.
Micro article – A creative way to capture project lessons learned. A micro article is a short magazine article-style document that conveys the project experiences and insights in easy-to-read prose and engaging visuals.
Negativity bias – A human tendency to think others will view an individual as more intelligent if he or she criticizes a situation rather than remarking on its positive attributes. In a project learning sessions (either during the project or at its close), negativity bias can limit opportunities for examining things that are going well in the project.
Project retrospective – A session held at the conclusion of a project in which the team reviews what happened well or poorly in the project and plans how projects should be approached differently and better going forward.  Retrospectives serve as a formal mechanism for capturing the important lessons learned from project successes and failures.
Punch list – In construction, a list of activities a builder must undertake before the purchaser will agree to close the deal. Punch lists of activities to be completed can also be used in nonconstruction projects.
Retainage – A small payment usually withheld by the customer until all final project activities are complete.
Structural holes – Gaps of knowledge within an organization.  These structural holes may be filled by individuals with social networks that span the structural holes and who interact frequently with people outside of their work groups or functions. 
Tollgate meeting – Review meetings held after certain phases in a project in which project teams present their achievements to key managers. The outcome of a tollgate meeting may be to continue funding, not continue funding (i.e., cancel the project), or request further work before approving the project to continue.
Traffic light process – A quick and effective method for continuous learning during the project.  The project manager gathers the team and asks each team member to submit one idea each for project practices they think should continue, start, and stop. The ideas are then collected used as input for adjusting how the project is managed going forward.